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Topic Review (Newest First)

02-21-2015 07:51 AM

Noahma

one last update. I spent some time tonight video taping the sunset. Its not the best quality. In order to be able to save the file I had to reduce the quality on my phone lol. Even after that the file came in at 3 gigs

Here ya go. The first part is rather underwhelming, but it is dimming which is not as apparent in the video.

The light is producing good par numbers. The stellatus is a very stunning red at the crowns. Its nice. They put on a good amount of growth during the week, and when checking the lower stems while doing my water change, they still held on to their leaves.

The Rotala green is well.. snaking across the substrate. I will probably have to move it into the shadows to keep it growing up instead of out.

02-18-2015 05:44 AM

Noahma

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceF

This is looking great Noah! I've got some of the so called monte carlo growing now. It would look great up in the front. I'm thinking I might need some stellatus. Great color on the persicaria. Really like what you are doing here.

Thanks!

Is it the Micranthemum ‘Monte Carlo’? That might be fun to try. As soon as I get things settled and growing well in the tank with the new light I would be more than happy to trade you a few trimmings of the stellatus. I have noticed good growth starting up. This week alone I think the stellatus put on at least 2" in height for the taller stems. The hygro sunset is turning a nice red color now (I don't think I can use it as a good nitrate indicator anymore lol) there is pearling, not mad pearling but noticeable. The fish are really liking the new lighting cycle. They are not scared to half death when the lights suddenly come on, or go off anymore and I am finding more and more eggs around the tank lol. Over the next two weeks I should have a good idea of how things are going. So far no stunting so I think the co2 is correct to the lighting as well.

The persicaria is an amazing plant. It used to be more green near the bottom and would only get that very bright pink at the top when it was at the 3/4 height. the lower stems are now getting that bright pink even at 1/4 from substrate! I think my light levels are lower than what they were with my last light setup, but the right wave lengths and quality of light has done some pretty amazing things.

Right now as I type this the lights are dimming and are about 50% light lol this thing is soo cool! Well worth the money.

02-16-2015 12:01 PM

BruceF

This is looking great Noah! I've got some of the so called monte carlo growing now. It would look great up in the front. I'm thinking I might need some stellatus. Great color on the persicaria. Really like what you are doing here.

02-16-2015 03:32 AM

Noahma

As promised here are pics of a cleaned up tank. I trimmed and replanted the stellatus, scooped out most of the h.japan, and replanted a few strands to get a much lower bush going this time around, trimed the other plants and cleaned up as much algae as I could. I am going to stop and grab some antibiotics to take care of the rest of the dang bga tomorrow. The light took some getting used to, the 90* optics leave the top of the tank pretty dark, at the 85% height mark but the plants are all getting a good amount of light below that. There is a very slight "disco effect" that is happening on the far right as my franz stoffels Is blocking all but a green and red LED, so occationally a fish will swim through it and look a bit odd. That should be alleviated when that leave gets old and I have to trim it off lol.

The fish seem to like the sunrise, and sunset feature of the light. The lights come on at 2:00 pm with the whites and reds come on first from 2-3 ramping from 0 to 100%. The ramp up is very smooth, so it looks like a sunrise. The greens and blues start at 2:45 and are full by 3:00.

At 10:30pm the greens and blues drop to 5% over the 30 min. and the reds and whites come down after that leaving a very nice orange / red "sunset" by 11:00 pm the lights are all off with the exception of the green / blue channel which stays at 5% until 2am which then goes off.

It works very well, and is very pleasing to watch. Hopefully as I get more used to programing with the solunar I can set up a program to throw on occasionally that will have lightning. could be nice to have maybe a water drip thing above the water that can "trigger" during the storm to provide a nice realistic storm lol. That's thinking ahead. Maybe I will have to setup a hood to do that in our next house.

I am also going to play with the cloud cover function as well, it looks like it could be nice to have every once in a while too.

No new fish additions, no losses (thank god) I will hopefully be getting some m.herberaxelrodi after our move in a few months. We will be listing our house to sell in the next month or so for somewhere bigger . The planning for the 75g will start after that lol.

Here is a bit of eye candy lol. The photos are as is with no modification. I did turn down the exposure a little on the camera to avoid the over saturation of light on the plant tops from the light though.

Full tank

stellatus

Right side

Left Side

bosemani

nigrans

02-12-2015 05:08 AM

Noahma

Quote:

Originally Posted by rballi

Very cool. Very curious to see how it works

I am very happy with the fixture so far. It is taking some getting used to the light, all the plants are lit, but because of the 90* optics, the tank in the top forward, and backward corner are darker. I know I could solve this by raising the lights, but I think I like the look of them being on top the tank. And the dark back makes the plants pop more.

Here are a couple of pics, they are hosted on my onedrive account, but viewable.

Ignore the BGA on the plants, that will be sucked off this weekend with the water change and the tank cleaned from top to bottom.

I did have to turn down the brightness level on my phone because the lights were over exposing the plants near the top of the aquarium, the tank is a little brighter than they appear in the pictures. The last few pictures were taken with no change in brightness.

The tank also needs a heavy hand with the trim hammer lol its overgrown immensely

light installed and programed. It starts the light cycle at 3:00pm and ramps up over an hour to full light going through each channel (1 - white, 2- red, 3- blue and greens) with a 30 min. separation. It then runs at full until 10:00 pm and then ramps back down from channel 1-3 giving channel 3 a few extra hours at 10% light until it fades to 0% at 2am. I think I may have to cut it back to 5% for the moon light, its still a little on the bright side lol. this thing is fantastic. It looks like less light, but I think I was over-lighting the tank with the T-5's. We will see over a couple weeks. The plants started pearling pretty good about an hour after having the light on at full, so I think the may be happy. I will get some pictures up after I get rid of the BGA that started growing last week.

02-08-2015 02:24 AM

Noahma

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceF

jealous

I usually go with as inexpensive lighting as I can, but I decided to splurge a bit. I cant wait!

02-07-2015 11:55 PM

BruceF

jealous

02-07-2015 07:43 PM

Noahma

Ok, fixture due to be delivered to my office on Monday!!!

Will post some pics and possibly a video when I get everything programed.

01-16-2015 02:51 AM

Noahma

Quick update. I went to order my Buildmyled fixture tonight and noticed a new product!!! It will do exactly what I want it to do, actually create sunrises and sunsets with a controller. They released the Dutch version of the fixture in a multi-channel control!!!!

I have a quick question out to Cara before I order the fixture, controller etc. to get this puppy on my tank!

12-23-2014 06:29 AM

Noahma

Quote:

Originally Posted by rballi

Looking good! I am loving my BML fixture, you get what you pay for.

I've been holding out on getting one for a while, but a nice Christmas bonus removed all excuses lol.

12-22-2014 05:40 AM

rballi

Looking good! I am loving my BML fixture, you get what you pay for.

12-22-2014 04:55 AM

Noahma

Quick update. lighting is going to be changing. I am going to order a BML led fixture. They are recommending the dutch fixture to bring out the plants colors etc. I think I will go that route. I am also going to add the lighting control to it as well, so the light will ramp up over a half an hour or hour to full light and then ramp back down when they are due to be off. We will see how that goes, I am excited though. Fish are doing great. I lost one of the pygmayea fry to a bent spine (birth defect) and the other in my flora after transferring it. It got a little too close to a power head and apparently got sucked in. I added some screen over the inlet, but It managed to find a way around that.

I will try again in the spring after we move. There will be plans for a 75g at some point as well, but that may be a ways off.

Anywho, here is a quick picture of the tank as it is now. once I get the light in, there will be some shifting around of plants, maybe a new species or two and maybe some of these ones will find new homes in another tank.

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